All terrain vehicles, as the name indicates, provide an attractive means for transporting various objects to remote locations which are inaccessible to other types of vehicles. ATV's normally are equipped with front and rear racks each extending generally the width of the ATV and suitable for carrying small objects which may be placed on a rack and secured as necessary. Elongated objects such as small boats or canoes useful for fishing or duck hunting at remote locations would require additional support that is not provided by standard equipment in the form of front and rear racks.
Various accessory racks have been developed for supporting objects such as rifles, tree stands and hoisting equipment on ATV's, these racks normally being connected to only the existing rear rack. A canoe carrier system connected to both the front and rear racks of an ATV is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,052, issued to Toivola on Oct. 3, 2000. This patent includes four vertical support members, one at each corner and a pair of elongated support members at the top. It would be desirable to provide a small boat carrier rack attachable to an ATV, but using fewer structural members where this can be done without loss of strength or function, thus reducing weight and the number of dead spots obstructing vision of a driver. Other desirable features would be to provide for adjustability of dimensions in all directions and to include additional protection against movement of a supported boat. Many of these criteria are also applicable to carrier racks mounted on pickup trucks.